Douglas F Shearer

SXC Round 3 2009 Laggan

Laggan is not usually one of my favourite races, the big-ring climb straight up a forestry road with a man-made descent straight back down is usually pretty unexciting. But for 2009, a few hundred meters of natural singletrack had been added to the climb, making things a lot more interesting, and leaving a few people like myself on the ground.

First lap was straight up the forestry road, with the singletrack climb only being ridden for the remaining laps. Thankfully everyone kept their heads on at this point, and we cruised up before having a bit of a sprint in the final few hundred meters for the holeshot into the descent. I got into fifth position, which I held all the way to the bottom.

Onto the climb again there was a little group of five of us, with four riders up ahead. I blew apart the group I was in with a big effort on the steep part, so as I could be first into the singletrack. This worked well, and only Jack Richards and Bruce McLeary were able to come with me. Jack had a little tumble on the exit to the forestry road, leaving Bruce and I to our personal battles.

On each of the remaining laps Bruce would gain about five seconds at the top of the climb, and I’d take it back on the bottom of the next climb. This continued until the last lap where I caught and passed him before the singletrack. Unfortunately I followed Jack’s example, and went over my bars on the exit, meaning Bruce could put a couple of seconds into me.

Bruce ended up taking 4th place by the misfortune of James Fraser-Moodie who had a puncture. I rolled in in 6th place overall, first Expert.

The SXC site has results, and images are available from Colin Robinson.

SXC 2008 Round 1 - Laggan

Just like the last two years, the first round of the SXC was held at “Laggan Wolftrax”: http://www.laggan.com/wolftrax.htm. No worries with the course then, the same fast fire-road climb, followed by the long rocky singletrack descent. But then there was the snow, which had fallen over the day before and morning. Luckliy by the time we got to race in the afternoon, there was only meltwater on the track, but a trip off the track would land you in snow. Fun!

The expert (yep, I got me an expert license finally!) race got off to the usual fast start, big ringing it most of the way up. Andy Barlow and Hamish Creber both made a good gap on the rest of the field by the top. I got into the descent in a fairly poor position, but wasn’t impeded too badly on the descent. For the next couple of laps I was loving it, doing the climb with Richard Macdonald, dropping him on the descent, then getting caught again on the flat sections. By the fifth lap, I was pretty cold, and was starting to lose my enthusiasm. I also had to stop a few times and pull my knee warmers up.

On the last lap I saw Alex McLean making up time on me round the top section, so I had no choice but to give it guttie and hope I could hold him off. He caught me just as we joined the bottom section of fireroad, but some sprinting action saw me keep my place for the lap. 13th place, not brilliant, but on-par with the sort of placing I had last year, albeit with only a month in the saddle this year.

Bring on Dalbeattie!

SXC 2007 Round 1 - Laggan

Sunday just past saw the first round of the SXC series at Laggan. It used the same course as last year apart from a new boggy section that replaced a very fast section of singletrack, but cut out some fireroad. This boggy section was rideable apart from a middle section which was quicker to run. There was also a huge deep puddle on exit, which caught a few people out.

For the third year I was riding expert, and having just come back from Cyprus, I we feeling good. As good as I was feeling, the standard was definitely up this year. I came in 11th, 18 minutes down on the winner. 7 laps didn’t seem much harder than the 6 we did last year, and I came away feeling fairly pleased with my efforts, and having something higher to aim for next time.

I will get some photos up soon, but for the moment you can look at my (almost) complete 2007 race build.

SXC Round 1 - Laggan

Sunday saw the first round of the SXC Series at Laggan. A great course, consisting of a big climb and a stunning rocky descent, and the sun making an appearance, led to happy faces all round.

Iain Nimmo (Stirling Bike Club Wheels of Callander) won the masters (>30yo) race by only 36 seconds, with Greig Walker (Edinburgh Road Club) coming in second. Prasad Prasad (C21 Multisport) suffered a mechanical, and was unable to finish the masters race. Kenny Kently (Team Velo Ecosse) continued his domination of the veteran (>40yo) series from last year, with a convincing lead of several minutes.

For the second season I was competing in the Expert/Elite category (The fast boys). After my not so stunning performance at the BUSAs, I wasn’t really expecting too much from this race. The short course meant that we had been given six laps, meaning a race time of around two hours.

I started well, sitting in the second group for the first lap. I dropped the group on the second lap, with Calum Thomas (Pedal Power RT) joining me on the third lap. By the fourth lap Calum had made the jump to the wheel of Chris Murley (Sandy Wallace Cycles) up ahead. By the time I caught Chris going into the final lap, Calumn had made his moves and was now up ahead on his own. A last lap effort prevented Euan Pope (Rockhard Mountain Bike Club) and his teammate Barry Crumlish from catching me.

I finished in sixth place, something I am pretty happy about. The race was won by Ross Creber (Evans RT), with Any Barlow (The Bike Chain) in second, and James Fraser-Moodie (Pedal Power RT) in third.

Thanks to the organisers and all the supporters at the race, especially Iain and Janet Nimmo who made me laugh going into my last lap. Oh, and not frgetting my mum for the lift.

Full results are available in PDF format". The Next round is at Fort William, so should be another good race.

Pic courtesy SXC website.